Zeitgeist
by arainymonday
Summary: When Lois comes in to work, she sees the front page of the Daily Planet with the VRA's "Most Wanted" list. But what did the Justice League think when they saw their pictures and aliases there? A series of interconnected vignettes.
1. Watchtower

**Disclaimer****:** None of these characters belong to me. I'm just playing in the Smallville sandbox.  
**Spoilers****:** "Absolute Justice" and Season 10 up to "Icarus"  
**Timeline****:** Companion piece to the episode "Icarus."

**Author's Note:** I know that Victor wasn't on the VRA's most wanted list, but I think that was more likely an off camera design decision because of space than the VRA not knowing or caring about Cyborg. I've included him in this story, and I ask that you pretend his picture was there too. Martian Manhunter, however, I have not put on the VRA's watch list. But he is in the JLA, and therefore, part of this story. I've given him a role in Lois and Clark's engagement party even though he was not there in the episode. Thank you for accommodating my creative license.

* * *

**Zeitgeist**

**Part One  
Watchtower**

All information touched Watchtower's infrastructure, and Chloe controlled every byte of it. Sitting in this lonely room under the amber light flickering from the dying light bulb, she watched her bots ping around the Internet, scrambling to collect tidbits from every site using keywords she had coded "of interest" and depositing them into her database.

Tess would review most of that information now and pass it along to the heroes Chloe had abandoned for their own protection. A frown marred her expression thinking of Tess Mercer sitting at her station and overseeing missions. But Chloe had made her decision to protect her friends so that one day she could say again "Watchtower online" and hear "Arrow online" in return.

Her fingers raced across the keys as she quickly scanned the retrieved documents. It was the golden hour in Metropolis – that half-lit time between night and day when heroes had rid the streets of crime and no new criminals ventured out. Tess would have logged out of Watchtower, and everyone would steal a few precious hours of sleep before assuming their cover identities in the morning.

Chloe breezed past the morning edition of the _Daily Planet_, but doubled back as quickly. As the editor-in-chief, Tess should have seen it already. Only today was not a normal day. Chloe's eyes widened as she took in the front page story and the VRA's list of most wanted vigilantes. With a shake of her head, and in a voice quiet as it was sad, she quoted:

"Cry havoc …"


	2. The Blur

**Zeitgeist**

**Part Two**  
**The Blur**

Clark weighed the tennis ball in his palm while Shelby danced excitedly at his knee. The dog's innocent anticipation put a genuine grin on Clark's lips. At last, he cocked his arm back and let the ball soar into the cornfield.

While Shelby raced after the ball, Clark headed out of the gate at superspeed. Lois had already called him four times to announce he was late to work. Each message came with greater threats. His personal favorite was: "Unless you're busy straightening the leaning Tower of Pisa ….". Despite the early hour and lack of sleep, his fiancée – and calling Lois his fiancée – had put him in a good mood.

The bustle of the city streets seemed to freeze as Clark sped toward the _Daily Planet_. His smile widened as he noticed affirmations that the Darkness had not infected everyone. A teenage girl held the door of a coffee shop open for an elderly woman, and a driver at a stop sign motioned for a group of school kids to cross. Basic kindness existed still, and it made the efforts of the Justice League worth the double life.

Just outside the _Daily Planet_ a strong gust of wind had blown the morning paper out of a businessman's hands. Frozen in midair as the pages were, Clark could see his story on the firefighters' union had been buried on page thirteen, and it concerned him that the only fire rescue worthy of the front page anymore involved superbreath.

He nearly sped past the flying pages entirely when he caught of glimpse of the front page from the corner of his eye. The street surged back into motion as he halted and snatched the page from midair. He had less than thirty seconds to take in the "Most Wanted" headline, his family shield, and his friends' pictures in the line up before he was interrupted.

"Hi, Clark!" Cat Grant's chipper voice was the last thing he wanted to hear, but she followed him inside the building and to the stairwell, oblivious to his mood. "I heard the big news."

He peered sharply over his shoulder, expression schooled from years of lying, while his brain worked furiously to come up with an obfuscation, but from Cat's cheerful expression, he took it that her 'big news' was not his becoming America's most wanted.

"Congratulations on the engagement. Are you thinking about a Spring wedding or a Summer wedding? Summer is always a nice time for weddings, but I prefer Spring because – "

"We haven't really gotten that far, Cat," Clark said. They reached the end of the stairs to the basement, and he was itching to talk to Lois about the most wanted list. Her desk was vacant, however. "You know what, I forgot I was supposed to meet Lois for a story."

Leaving Cat in the basement, Clark took the steps two at a time and dialed Lois's number even before he'd crossed the atrium. She picked up after two rings.

"Where the hell have you been, Smallville?" Lois's voice demanded. "I'm chasing a story in four inch heels, and I could really use a superstrong arm to lean on here."

Hearing her hassled, clipped voice reminded him why he loved her, and while the threat of the VRA stayed with him, he was able to forget his worry for just a moment and remember the good in the world. A childish grin spread over his lips when he answered.

"Sorry, Lois, I was straightening the leaning Tower of Pisa."


	3. Green Arrow

**Zeitgeist**

**Part Three**  
**Green Arrow**

The assistant had left a breakfast of oatmeal and fruit on the desk with a folded copy of the _Daily Prophet_ wedged between the granola and orange juice. Draping the towel over his shoulders, Oliver took the juice in one hand and the paper in the other. The glass made it only halfway to his lips. The seconds ticked by as he stared at the photograph labeled GREEN ARROW before he decided he didn't have it in him anymore to care. He'd been through so much since revealing his identity. What was one more infamous footnote behind his name? With the newspaper abandoned on the breakfast tray, he went back his daily routine.

Oliver didn't bother knocking on the door declaring the office home of the Editor-in-Chief of the _Daily Planet_. It would only delay his retreat out of the busy hallway. Reporters knew his face too well to hope no one recognized him, hat and sunglasses or no.

"Bang up job editing the _Daily Planet_," Oliver said, waving around the folded morning edition.

When Tess looked up from her computer, she wore her favorite expression: slightly frowning lips, one eyebrow arched. It was meant to strike fear into the hearts of her opponents, but Oliver didn't see himself that way anymore. Her voice had guided him through too many successful missions.

"As I've already explained to Lois and Clark, I didn't have a choice. Newspaper editors all across America are having this same conversation, Oliver."

"Yeah, I know."

He tossed the paper on the coffee table and jammed his hands into his pockets. Tess's expression darkened, and she marched from her chair to the window for no other purpose than to turn her back on him.

"You really should stay in Watchtower or at least somewhere less conspicuous. I can hardly think of a worse place for you to be right now than a building full of reporters."

"Worried for me?"

She spun on her heel at his mocking tone and stared him down. "I'm worried for all of us, like you should be. Like you should have been when you threw your little coming out party and signed up for prison camp."

"What's done is done, Tess. I can't take it back now. All I can do is make the best of a bad situation."

Tess nodded with a decidedly superior air. "Then let's make some use of your ill-advised jaunt to the _Daily Planet_. I have some news …."


	4. Black Canary

**Zeitgeist**

**Part Four**  
**Black Canary**

The recording booth felt like an island during commercial breaks. Dinah sat in the comfortable armchair behind the suspended microphone with the padded headphones muffling the world. Each steady breath sounded like waves rushing to meet the shore, and she could believe she was alone in a world without problems for just a few moments. While the airwaves played traffic updates for the Metropolis area and words from sponsors, she enjoyed the moment of tranquility.

The producers and technicians ensconced behind soundproof glass had learned early on to not bother their talk show host during weather reports and traffic updates. A moment of respite kept Dinah on her game and verbally pummeling the irrationally irate liberal callers. That, in turn, kept ratings high and advertisers happy. Ratings had been hard to maintain since Gordon Godfrey went from small-time rants to worldwide diatribes.

Safely isolated in her recording booth, with two-and-a-half minutes to go before she was back on the air, Dinah tapped the screen on her phone. A series of e-mails had come streaming in from the Justice League since the VRA had passed. She had refrained from responding yet. They already knew what she thought of the government tossing out a slew of civil rights along with a chunk of the Constitution, and preaching to the choir wouldn't solve a more pressing matter.

What did she say about the VRA on air?

It was a Catch-22. Criticizing the VRA meant risking her secret identity, which had come to feel more like her real identity since meeting the Justice League. But supporting the VRA undermined everything she believed in and fought for. Until the Darkness came, crime fighting had been straightforward, whether in a police uniform or superhero costume. But the world had turned on its head.

A message marked with a tiny red exclamation mark from Lois carried a subject line in caps lock: _OPEN NOW!_ The e-mail contained a brief line and a link.

_Apparentely, the Pony Express lost the memo telling Uncle Sam that outlaw gangs went out of style with Billy the Kid. –Lois_

After allowing herself a brief smile at Lois's expense, Dinah followed the link to the _Daily Planet_ website. The upturned corners of her mouth fell instantly. She stared at the image emblazoned on the small screen – at the sketch of her own face under the headline declaring her "Most Wanted."

"We're back on in five … four …"

Dinah sucked in a deep, reinforcing breath and pushed aside her phone. When the sound technician pointed at her through the soundproof glass, she leaned forward and spoke into the microphone with a steady voice.

"Welcome back, listeners. This is Dinah Lance speaking to you from Metropolis, where the VRA has just released their list of Most Wanted on the front page of the _Daily Planet_. I'm sure there are certain bleeding hearts out there stunned at how the government is trampling on the Bill of Rights. But conservatives in this country have always known this day was coming. My friends, we should not be surprised."

Her eyes slid over to the silenced phone when the screen lit up. Text messages came in one after the other from Oliver, Clark, and AC and a grin spread over Dinah's mouth. The bleeding hearts in the Justice League had heard her and knew they were the friends she addressed.


	5. Aquaman

**Zeitgeist**

**Part Five**  
**Aquaman**

The cell phone dropped onto the crumbled tropical-colored beach towel with the screen still neon blue from use. Dinah's voice channeling from the radio plugged into the aquarium's sound system faded into blurry background noise as AC dove into the dolphin tank. The mammals welcomed him with clicks and calls he understood as cheerful greetings. He was late for his morning swim, and they wanted to know why.

When Mera had leaned over his shoulder in the observation room and punched in the address for the _Daily Planet_ website, AC had expected to see another Lois and Clark byline. Since their detour to Smallville and the Kent farm, Mera had been strangely interested in Lois's stories. Whatever nascent friendship was there, AC was only too glad to encourage it. Lois got herself into enough trouble without adding Mera's high-strung emotions into the mix.

But the story had not been by Lois and Clark. Rather, it was _about _Lois and Clark and the rest of the Justice League. He stared hard at the computer screen, his fists clenched so tightly around the water samples he'd been analyzing that he shattered the test tubes and impaled his palms with jagged glass.

"Orin!" Mera had scolded, although only half-heartedly.

While she dug out the glass fragments with the tweezers in the first aid kit, AC had fumed and ranted about the VRA. He couldn't remember half of what he'd said, but he did recall some of his more colorful insults causing Mera's eyebrows to arch slightly.

"So we're criminals now?" he shouted, slamming his uninjured fist on the metal table.

"Unless I'm mistaken, you've been a criminal for several years now. Every since you stopped Lex Luthor from deploying Leviathan, the government has had you in the crosshairs."

"How can you take this so calmly?" he demanded.

"I'm not! But I am thinking instead of yelling. Who is going to turn us in? A manatee? An orca? This doesn't change anything for us." She pointed at the computer screen with the tweezers. "But for them …."

The deeper he swam into the cool blue-green depths, the less he heard Dinah's commentary on the VRA. The water healed his hand and cooled his head, and the chatty dolphins distracted him from brooding darkly.

"Mera's right," he told the dolphins. "It's all the same for us down here, but up on dry land it's a whole new world."


	6. Zatanna

**Zeitgeist**

**Part Six**  
**Zatanna**

The sun rose over Shadowcrest as Zatanna returned home from a long night in the Narrows. She had failed to track down another of her father's cursed objects, but she did have one new lead to look into. Her black high heels clicked on the tiled floor, and as she mounted the stairs, she shook open the morning edition of the _Gotham Gazette_.

Zatanna gazed at the front page and the roster of "vigilantes" in the Wanted-style arrangement. Unlike someone in Metropolis, none of the Justice League's Gotham counterparts had been foolish enough to reveal themselves, and yet the VRA had blurry photos taken from security cameras to attach to most of them. Batman, Nightwing, and Oracle took top billing. A surprisingly clear picture, almost like a promotional headshot, bore the simple caption: ZATANNA.

The magician lowered the paper, revealing a chagrined smile to the empty landing. The injustice of the line up struck her hard. She had barely joined the ranks of crime fighters, and she had certainly never blown up government facilities like AC or stalked corrupt politicians like Bruce. She had learned to use her gifts for the purpose of correcting her father's youthful mistakes.

But the VRA were only human, and humans were greedy. Now that they knew magic existed, they wanted it for themselves. After all, Zatanna could grant them their greatest desires: power, wealth, information. Naturally, all her superhero friends hid behind aliases. But not Zatanna; she had used her real name in her stage act, and now the VRA exploited that fact for their own ends.

She did have to wonder what the VRA were thinking, putting her face and name out in public. Vanishing was the easiest spell in the book, and no one would find her unless she wanted to be found.

"I guess it's time to disappear," she said.

She might have uttered the spell right then, but her ringing cell phone distracted her. She read the message from Lois and followed the embedded link. Like in Gotham, Metropolis had its own roster of most wanted superheroes. Zatanna stared in horror at a headshot of herself in the _Daily Planet_ identical to the one in the _Gotham Gazette_.

For several minutes, her eyes flicked between the lineup on the cell phone and the one in the newspaper. The least active superhero in the Justice League had landed on not one, but _two_ most wanted lists. Disbelief gradually faded away to amused irony, and her tentative chuckles turned into peals of laughter.


	7. Martian Manhunter

**Zeitgeist**

**Part Seven**  
**Martian Manhunter**

A final signature on the night's reports ended John's shift at the Metropolis Police Department. The small stack of paper might impress the chief, but it told only a fraction of the story. The official account said John had apprehended two suspected thieves. It did not say he had received word of the robbery from Tess in Watchtower and used his Martian vision to discover the criminals' hideout.

The sun had just crested the horizon when John emerged from the precinct, and he blinked against the too bright light. On the way to the black car parked in the lot, he snagged a morning edition of the _Daily Planet_ and shook open the fold. He paused by the driver's side door, keys dangling from the ring looped around his right index finger.

The Vigilante Registration Act had not only passed, but the agency had declared war on heroes. With a sinking feeling in his gut, John stared at the House of El shield. Long ago, he had promised Jor-el he would protect Kal-el. That was a promise he intended to keep. But how long would it be possible with the United States government on high alert?

"Disturbing, isn't it?"

John turned sharply to see Oliver striding across the blacktop. He had disguised himself reasonably well under a baseball cap and sunglasses, though there was something undeniably Oliver about his body language. John had mimicked enough people in his time to notice gaits and ticks.

"You shouldn't be here, Oliver." The Martian tapped the newspaper for emphasis.

"Yeah, yeah. I get it that I'm a wanted man … and this is a police station." His eyes scanned the brick building, as if he realized for the first time where he'd wandered. It did not bode well for his freedom. "But I need your help with something."

"I have seen the destruction of two worlds," John said. "I will not let it happen again. Whatever you need, Oliver. John Jones has escaped the VRA's notice. For now, I'm able to go where the others cannot."

Oliver's eyebrows arched over the top of his dark glasses. He pulled a list on lined paper out of his pocket and offered it to John.

"I just got back from seeing Tess. We're thinking engagement party, and nothing says true love like a Muscadelle from the South of France."

Surprise turned to disapproval before a slight smile hitched into the corner of John's mouth and he took the shopping list from Oliver. The car would be no use now, so he stored his keys in his pocket and scanned the area to make sure no one saw him take flight.

"Hey, John. Just curious. Is it a Martian thing to be perpetually somber and speak gravely? Or is that just your personality?"

"It comes with age."

"Great. Thanks for the info. That was a joke, by the way, meant to lighten your mood. Glad it worked. I'd hate for you to fly all the way to France brooding," Oliver said. Even behind his disguise, John could read the sardonic expression on the other man's face.

John shook his head slightly and tried to hide the smile creeping across his features. Only humans could expect moments of levity while the Darkness spread relentlessly across their world. His eyes found the piece of paper in his fist. Humans and one Kryptonian, he corrected himself.

John had no humor to share, but he did have a purpose and hope.


	8. Supergirl

**Zeitgeist**

**Part Eight**  
**Supergirl**

Sounds flooded Kara's superhearing, but she closed her eyes and focused on the voices she knew. Kal-el threw a tennis ball for Shelby before he sped to Metropolis. In another city, Lana ordered a coffee from a street vendor. Such mundane acts from such extraordinary people.

Suspended above the Earth, pure sunlight from Sol washed over Kara. She should have been stronger than ever, but she only felt alone up in the vacuum of space with nothing but distant stars for company. Lois's words had stayed with her. Kara replayed them over in her mind, and the more she thought about loneliness, the more her senses tuned to Lois and her happiness.

"The VRA has crossed the line." Lois's voice reached Kara as if they stood right next to each other. "This isn't justice or law and order. This is a witch hunt. When are we going to do something?"

Another woman responded, probably Tess, but Kara had already retreated from the conversation. Snatches of news broadcasts and casual talk on the street formed a patchwork understanding of what was happening. Kara recognized the Darkness working behind the scenes. Watchtower and the Justice League could debate all they wanted, but Kara had a mission from her uncle.

Heat blossomed around Kara's indestructible body during reentry into Earth's atmosphere. She might have listened longer to fill in some blank spaces with overheard conversations, but there was a time to wait and a time to act. She set a course for the east coast of the United States and landed in the designated meeting space.

"Thank you for coming. I know you have more important things to do, but …."

Kara smiled at the older woman emerging into the secluded garden within the Washington, D.C. park. "It's okay. We're family. Sort of."

"I hope one day you can think of us as a real family." Martha held out a folded newspaper to Kara. "This is why I asked you to come here. I'm so proud of Clark and what he's doing, but I'm afraid for him too."

Kara unfolded the newspaper and scanned the article. In the nation's capital, so-called vigilantes from across the country were listed as wanted by the VRA. She recognized most of the heroes by their pictures or sketches. At the top of the list, larger than the rest, was the House of El shield.

"Humans focus too much on signs of the Darkness. That's all the VRA's wanted list is, Mrs. Kent," Kara declared. "The danger isn't any greater now than it was yesterday."

From the firm set of Martha's mouth and the fire in her eyes, Kara knew she had said the wrong thing. It was a mother's disapproval of a naïve child who should know better. Kara had seen it on her own mother's face before Krypton was destroyed and Aunt Lara's when she had come from the crystal.

"We're hunting the Darkness. Once we find it and destroy it, this will all be over."

A wavering smile passed across Martha's lips. "Your optimism does you credit, Kara. But I'm still worried for both of you. This Darkness, it's not something your abilities can fight."

Kara didn't have the heart to tell Mrs. Kent clarity of purpose did not require optimism nor that Clark had failed in his test against the Darkness. Instead, she promised Mrs. Kent she would do everything in her power to keep Kal-el safe. And she would. She would keep him away from the Darkness.


	9. Impulse

**Zeitgeist**

**Part Nine**  
**Impulse**

The bone broke with an audible crack, and Bart's left arm fell useless at his side. Stifling a cry, he turned his head in time to see the metal folding chair aimed at his head. He side-stepped the blow, but the jostling air currents in superspeed sent spikes of pain up his arm. Agony or not, Bart was not going to give Henchman #3 the chance to tell anyone he one-upped Impulse. Forcing away the nausea and dizziness, Bart doubled back and slowed to normal speed behind the nameless goon.

"Behind you." The thug spun around, but Bart had already zipped across the room. "Over here." He toyed with Henchman #3 as much as his pain threshold allowed, and then snatched the USB drive from the computer and flashed out of the compound.

He was nothing more than a red streak across the desert, hardly visible under the harsh sunlight painting the landscape in uniform dust colors. Bart paused several miles from the compound to reposition his arm. He'd learned the hard way there was no getting out of his Impulse costume with a compound fracture.

"I haven't been to Metropolis in awhile anyway."

Alone in the middle of nowhere, his voice held little of his usual bravado. Kansas was half a world away, and superspeed hurt his arm more than he wanted to admit. He was grateful for the few minutes delay Lois's text message allowed him.

When Bart dropped out of superspeed again, the exam room doors had hardly blown open, and a strong gust of post-superspeed wind still unsettled the papers across Emil's desk. He held up the _Daily Planet_ and triumphantly announced, "We're rock stars!"

The doctor looked up from the open chart and blinked at the young hero. He took in the red costume and awkward angle of Bart's left arm, and then motioned to the high exam table covered in sterile white sheets. "Sit down so I can set your arm."

"Sorry your mug didn't make it to the front page, Doc. If it's any consolation, I'm sure you've got a VRA tail on you night and day."

Emil pulled a face. "It's not. And I'm fine not landing on a public government watch list. I never really had the desire to wear colorful leather anyway. Doesn't it bother you at all that you're a wanted man?"

"Nope. Who's gonna catch me? Fastest man alive, remember?"

"You've been captured before."

"A fluke. Won't happen again."

"Famous last words. Are you sticking around Metropolis?"

Bart held up the USB drive. "Gotta get this to Victor tonight."

After the plaster cast had dried and Bart emptied the hospital vending machine of half its contents, he leapt off the exam table, pulled on his hood, and slipped on his sunglasses with one hand. "Rock stars, Emil! It's all about senoritas and crime fighting from now on!"


	10. Cyborg

**Zeitgeist**

**Part Ten**  
**Cyborg**

Zeroes and ones streamed through Victor's mind as he connected to the facility's computer infrastructure and manipulated the codes Bart had left at the drop spot. Suspended in the information matrix as he was, Victor still noticed his surroundings.

The air always felt chill at this altitude, but it had begun snowing earlier in the day. The metal walls of the warehouse did nothing to fight off the cold. Green glass in the high rectangular windows tinted everything a sickly Kryptonite-hued green that made Victor wish he had Clark on the mission for back-up. Bart's sweep of the place had the "henchmen count" at over thirty.

"Security is disabled." He waited for the response before proceeding.

The electronic lock flashed green as the door slid back to reveal a cavernous room. Wooden shipping crates labeled in Japanese characters and Arabic numbers filled the space floor to ceiling. Victor recalled the schematics on the USB drive and followed the plans through the labyrinthine aisles to the bank of computers on the rear wall. He cracked the firewalls without trouble.

"Row 341. The crate is marked with the character I'm sending to your phone."

The grating of metal walls opening drew Victor's attention to the west entrance and the seven men in black suits rushing in with guns drawn. He dodged a punch and sent his attacker flying into a column of crates. A bullet pinged off his metal parts and a streak of red materialized around the shooter. Victor left Bart to clean up and returned to the computer.

"Took you long enough," Victor grumbled, when he disconnected from the mainframe. "Did you get it?"

Bart wore a cocky smile under his hood and balanced a small abstract sculpture on his palm. Victor recognized the artwork from the reconnaissance photographs. The chip would be inside. "Rock stars have to make grand entrances."

"What? You're not serious. That's the worst cover identity ever. Besides, I've heard you sing."

Victor led the retreat through the warehouse, and Bart kept pace beside him. He handled the priceless sculpture carelessly, and Victor considered safeguarding it himself, but he needed his hands free to get them out of the facility.

"This is what I'm talking about."

Bart proudly shoved a crumbled newspaper page in front of Victor. It looked several days old on first glance, but the date was current. A combination of superspeeding and Bart's pocket had unnaturally aged it. The pictures on the cover brought him up short, and Bart had to double back.

"Not cool, man," the younger hero complained. "I'm already creeping along at a glacial pace for you."

Victor hardly heard or he might have retorted that he could run a hell of a lot faster than some of their friends. The shock of seeing his mugshot in the _Daily Planet_ dissipated before he could truly comprehend the implications of a worldwide manhunt for metahumans.

"Next time you want to spring bad news on me, do it when we're not halfway through a mission."

A colder, more calculating voice in the back of Victor's mind propelled him toward the exit at full speed.


	11. Stargirl

**Zeitgeist**

**Part Eleven**  
**Stargirl**

The history teacher glanced up from his lecture notes as the door opened and emitted Courtney to the classroom fifteen minutes after the morning bell had rung. She should have apologized for the interruption, but she couldn't remember the teacher's name so she took an empty seat in the back of the room and slumped behind the desk.

"Nice of you to join us … for once," the teacher remarked dryly.

Courtney acknowledged the admonition with a baleful blink. She was too tired to deal with an unpleasant teacher, and the blow she'd taken to her shoulder while on patrol throbbed with every heartbeat. Emil had patched her up and sent her home, with the pointed suggestion that if she went to bed and rested like he prescribed, she could make it to school in the morning.

She regretted following his advice now. Sitting behind the small, cramped desk made it impossible to straighten her arm, and that was the only position that didn't hurt. Twenty minutes into class, Courtney's cell phone disrupted the lecture again. Her teacher sighed deeply, and then objected with a wordless protest when she opened the text message from Lois. Her classmates snickered appreciatively.

"Cell phones are not permitted in class!" he sputtered.

Courtney hardly heard him. Lois's note left a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, and she tapped the link to open the front page of the _Daily Planet_ website. She blinked down at her own image – a startlingly clear picture that meant life would never be the same for her again. Hot and cold chills raced over her body. Her mind had gone blank, and she could process not even the most basic clues that her teacher had had enough interruptions for one day.

The panicked buzzing in her brain had less to do with the headline and photograph than the sheer shock of being shocked. This had been coming for weeks, and they had all known it. But Courtney had held in reserve a tiny glimmer of hope that it would be different than last time, that the Justice League had a chance the Justice Society never did.

"Put it away, Miss Whitmore, or spend the rest of the class period in the principal's office."

Courtney didn't hear her teacher. Adrenaline kicked in a moment later. She seized her backpack and fled from the room to gasps and appreciative muttering from her peers. Superhero dual identity or no, Courtney Whitmore was a teenager fighting a battle few adults could hope to conquer. Fear drove her to the one place she felt completely safe and the one person she trusted above all others. Ducking into the empty stairwell, she summoned the Cosmic Staff and teleported.


	12. Hawkman

**Zeitgeist**

**Part Twelve**  
**Hawkman**

The buzzing phone on the dresser roused Carter from a dreamscape of sand dunes and blistering desert sun. He struggled from the bedclothes and tried to bring his mind to the present, but three thousand years of memories refused to be erased so quickly. He flipped open the cover of the cell phone and stared uncomprehendingly at the message there. Lois had sent him a text message. Courtney had taught him how to check those, but he'd forgotten already. If it was important, he would receive a call about it later. He closed the phone and trudged down to the lower levels of the brownstone to brew a pot of coffee and retrieve the _Daily Planet_ from the front stoop.

Carter laid the newspaper on the display case above Wildcat's boxing gloves and crossed his arms over his chest. The corners of his mouth twitched as he stared down at the front page and the mugshot labeled HAWKMAN. The VRA had decided to call him by his superhero name when they – and every other law enforcement agency in the world – knew he was Carter Hall. They were ignoring the Justice Society of America, and no one knew better than he how history refused to be disregarded.

A moment later, his grin slipped. He felt her presence as keenly as if she stood beside him, arms brushing and the scent of her perfume surrounding him. Shayera. And he knew that the VRA's amusing wanted poster meant the end of this life. His sigh of relief came out as a light laugh. For just one moment, his desire to see Shayera again outweighed his purpose with the Justice League. The emotion passed with an echo of Courtney's accusation that Shayera would have never quit fighting.

"It's a good thing I let Green Bean upgrade my suit," he remarked to the empty room.

His eyes flicked to the wall panels that concealed Hawkman's costume, and his fingers twitched instinctively to curl around the handle of his heavy mace.

"Carter?" a young female voice inquired.

He turned, not startled to see Courtney standing behind him with the Cosmic Staff in her hand. The brilliant light of it had only just faded away, leaving the dusty interior of the brownstone more forlorn than before. He must seem cold to her, he thought, with his unflappable façade and resolve. Truly, he felt no touch of shock or anger, only a deeply chilling resignation.

"I always knew they would come after us," she said, her voice shaky. "But not like this. What is this Darkness, Hawkman?"

Carter turned away, unable to stare down youthful hope. Teenager or not, Courtney had chosen this path against his – and everyone's – advice. Like the rest of the Justice League, she needed to hear the truth. But it pained him to say it aloud, to crush whatever optimism Sylvester's death had not.

"It's a sign of the times."

**Fin**


End file.
